Tag Archives: Ryan Tipping

Maine Democrats could fight about these platform proposals at their convention

Maine Democrats will debate adding support for a universal health care program to their platform as they chart a path out of the difficult era of Gov. Paul LePage.

LePage tells lawmakers that municipal leaders prey on elderly Mainers

Making a rare pitch to a legislative panel, the governor said it’s “unconscionable” for towns to take homes from seniors. But Democrats used the opportunity to press him on other issues.

LePage moves to extend endangered jobs program but will Democrats back it?

Good morning from Augusta, where controversy around a tense issue for the Legislature in 2018 might have been diffused, or at least put off for five years. The Pine Tree Development Zone program will end in 2018 unless it is extended or altered. The program was implemented in 2003 under Democratic Gov. John Baldacci to […]

LePage re-enters Maine’s budget fight as shutdown fears grow

Five months and 10 days after Gov. Paul LePage floated a two-year budget proposal largely ignored by the Legislature, he has muscled his way back into their stalled and dysfunctional budget process with the state as close as it’s been to a shutdown during his tenure. Senate President Mike Thibodeau, R-Winterport, said Friday morning that […]

LePage, Democrats still can’t agree on the basic math of Question 2

Good morning from Augusta, where Gov. Paul LePage’s Office of Policy and Management released an economic impact study on a new 3 percent surtax on income over $200,000 that is drawing some criticism over its methodology. The Republican governor opposed Question 2, which passed on the 2016 ballot with an aim to boost school funding […]

Democrats emerge from budget hearings firing back at LePage

Good morning from Augusta, where things continue to be slow this week with the Maine Legislature mostly out of town on a February break. But after the Appropriations Committee began four days of hearings on the wide-ranging Maine Department of Health and Human Services portion of Gov. Paul LePage’s two-year budget proposal on Tuesday, Democrats began to fire back […]